Unlike most superheroes, Peter tries valiantly to balance his superhero identity with that of his regular persona. He has had to work various jobs during the day as a means of supporting himself. For the longest time he was a photographer at the Daily Bugle. At the time the DB was headed by a man known as J. Jonah Jameson who was incredibly outspoken about his views of Spider-Man and used his newspaper as a means of trashing the hero on a daily basis.

Throughout the Civil War, a big theme that many of the heroes were grappling with was a question of security. If they revealed their identities to the authorities and formally registered with the government, would their secrets be safe? Peter was at the very center of this conflict. If he sided with the Anti-Registration forces, he’d be a fugitive. If he sided with the Pro-Registration forces, his secret would be out. Whatever his choice, his decision could potentially put his Aunt May and his at the time wife Mary Jane in danger. With Iron becoming a mentor of sorts to Peter for a time leading up to the Civil War, he was able to convince Peter that registering with the government was the best direction and that Aunt May and MJ would be safe. During a press conference, Peter (dressed as Spider-Man) stood up alongside Iron Man and announced to the world his decision to side with the Pro-Registration heroes and unmasked himself.

Being bitten by a radioactive spider, Peter’s blood became irradiated and mutated his genetics to some degree. All of his physical attributes were heightened to low superhuman levels. He also has the ability to stick to walls. Peter developed a special clairvoyant ability that warns him of impending danger as well. He has dubbed this a “Spider-Sense”. In keeping with his spider motif, Peter used his genius mind and a knack for science and engineering to build web shooters. These devices made use of a synthetic adhesive (also of Peter’s own design) that has a tensile strength of about 120lbs per square millimeter. Though he has no formal combat training, Spider-Man is a dangerous foe for anyone to battle. Over time he’s combined his strength, speed, and agility as well as his ability to stick to walls and his Spider-Sense to form a unique fighting style would give even the best hand-to-hand combatants a run for their money.

As much as I love Spider-Man as a character, I didn’t find him particularly useful in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Web Bullets was a cool rapid fire ability, Web Warrior was a powerful, chargeable ability that could launch an enemy across the screen, and Web Shield and Spider-Sense were deadly boost powers that raised his defensive abilities and slowed time respectively. My problem though was that for all the stuff that made Spider-Man a useful teammate, there were other characters out there who do just as good of a job, but with the added effects of bleed damage, higher chances of critical hits, or alternate damage types (energy, fire, electricity, etc.). As a melee fighter with some ranged skills, Spider-Man is probably best used as a means of complimenting an already strong team.